impossibility to control vs. impossibility of control

[Tamara]

Hi

Is there any difference in saying impossibility to control and impossibility of control?

For some vague reasons I thought that in this case the noun is strongly needed, but have met impossibility to control (in a technical text :)) and now am being in doubts :) about the difference (if any).
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[Alan]

Morning Tamara,

Quite frankly I don't like either. Impossibilty of control is to me a dog's dinner of an expression. I would stick to 'impossible to control' or more long-winded 'impossibility of controlling' The same construction ie 'impossible to control' after all occurs in your famous mantra.

A
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Present Simple

[Tamara]

Morning Alan,

Thanks.
'impossible to control', OK.
(I'm afraid, '... of controlling' is impossible :) in my context.)

I meant phrases like:
'… used to prove the difficulty or impossibility of control'
'the concept means the fundamental impossibility of control'
'possibility or impossibility of control'
'a way of dealing with this impossibility of control'
and the like.

ps

[Alan]

So let's develop that point to make it sound (at least to me) better and say: the impossibility of the idea of/the concept of control.

Is that all right or am I off beam?

A
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story Progressive Forms

[Yankee]

Tamara, both combinations are possible. In order to tell you whether they've been used appropriately or correctly, you would need to post complete sentences for evaluation. I agree that "impossibility of control" would probably be a more likely format, though.

I'm sure you've googled the two phrases. Why not post full sentences for comment? It's tough to give you detailed feedback without detailed input -- i.e. the full sentence structure and context.

Part of the difficulty of your question is the simple fact that we tend to use the adjective impossible much more often than the noun impossibility. So, out of context, the phrase 'impossibility to control' may tend to sound unusual for that reason alone.

As to the format, compare a similar structure: "inability to control". Even out of context, that phrase doesn't sound unusual to me in the least -- but "inability of control" does. :lol:

Amy
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Tamara]

Hi Amy and Alan,

[Yankee]

Hi Tamara

As a "non-techie":wink:, I'd probably use the adjective instead of the noun. "Impossible to control" might be my non-techie choice.
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln

[Tamara]

OK. Your vote has been counted. :)

Thanks, Amy, indeed.
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It’s impossible to learn swimming without entering the water…

[Yankee]

Hi Tamara

Just an added note:

One of the things I noticed about my German students was their tendency to use the noun 'possiblity' in sentences that would typically contain the adjective 'possible' in English. This was generally caused by an overly direct translation from German into English.
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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." ~ Abraham Lincoln